PIL petition to save heritage building of school

Madurai

An alumnus of the over 100 year old Karur Municipal Higher Secondary School moved the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court seeking a direction to restrain the Karur district administration from demolishing the heritage building of the school.

In his public interest litigation petition, S. Nanmaran of Karur said that he was representing the alumni of the school who wanted the district administration to preserve the heritage building rather than demolish it.

He said that the origin of the school dates back to 1884 and the main building was constructed in 1909. The building that houses the Principal’s room, office, staff room and a few classrooms was strong even today.

However, the district administration has taken a decision to demolish the heritage building to build a new structure to accommodate additional classrooms. He said that the strength of the school was 1000 and students can be accommodated in the present structure itself.

Moreover, there was a vacant site adjacent to the main building, he said. There were peaceful demonstrations held protesting the move to demolish the building and even representations were submitted. But, there were no responses to the representations, he said.

Taking the PIL petition for hearing, a Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and P. Rajamanickam ordered notice to the district administration and sought a response in the case. The case was adjourned for further hearing.